The izakaya I really wanted to be in my city

Recently, I dropped in a cocktail bar, and ordered wine and some cheese. I liked cheeses with the red wine, especially Brie de Meaux and Camembert de Normandie were my favorites.

When enjoying my cheese with wine, the bar manager, knowing that I was a big sake fan, told me about a new izakaya in my city.

According to him, an izakaya opened recently on the opposite side of the railroad. "The opposite side of the railroad" for him means my side of the railroad because my house is on the side opposite to the bar.

He told me that the izakaya carried an unusually wide selection of sakes. Excited at the news, I could not help stopping wine to leave for that izakaya soon. So, paid for my two glasses of wine and cheese and left the bar. According to the instructions by the bar manager, I walked across the railroad at the nearest crossing and went to the T-junction, where I took the left. I could easily found the lighted sign of the izakaya "絆" (Kizuna) from quite a distance.

I could narrowly peep into the restaurant through a small latticework pane on the front door. I went inside, and there was no customer. There was a counter and a few tables. The structural design of the restaurant was like that of a bar or karaoke snack bar.


The interior wall was light-colored fake-wood-grain finished. You could tell the izakaya Kizuna had just started its operation from arranged flowers placed in corners of the restaurant.

Just the manager and I were there, and I could enjoy sake in a quiet environment.


When I looked in the menu, there was a long list of sake brands. There were Yukinobosha, Okunokami, Yuho, Dassai, Nabeshima, Juyondai, Oroku, Tensei, Jikon, Hoka, Mutsu Hassen, Yamayu, Gorin, Kudoki Jozu, Nambubijin, etc. According to the manager, the izakaya carries about 30 types of sake, focusing on Akita and Yamagata sake.


Being very happy with such a variety of sake, I thought this izakaya was a good place for going alone for some good sake. I thought I would be able to sit at the counter and enjoy talks with the izakaya manager if the place was not very crowded.


より大きな地図で 酒処の場所 を表示

Enjoying sake in various ways

I sometimes drink muroka or muchosei genshu (non-filtered or non-conditioned undiluted sake) after adding some water or some other dry sake to it. This is quite interesting. I quite recently found this way of "processing" sake interesting when I dropped in an izakaya, ordered a muroka namazake (non-filtered non-pasteurized sake) and some dry sake, tasted them together after mixing them, and found mixing two different sakes very interesting.

On the last 20, March, a Japanese national holiday, I received Sawanoi Asagake-no-sake. This sake was special sake sold on a subscription basis, which I had before asked a sake shop to deliver to me.

On that day, I had a short hike on a hill in Ome city, and then visited one of my favorite places, Sawanoi-en. There was the izakaya Sawanosuke, which was a half-open-air sake bar set up in Sawanoi-en. So, I sat there to cure my fatigue from the long walk, and had some beer and sake. After drinking some alcohol, I thought I should skip today's evening drink. However, when I returned home, I found the bottle of Asagake-no-sake had been waiting for me. So, quite naturally, I needed to reward the sake for its having been waiting for me so long by appreciating its taste.

This just-pressed, non-filtered, undiluted sake was still fermenting in its bottle, but since fermentation had not advanced very much, the pressure inside pushed up the cap just slightly when I opened the bottle.

I felt a rich taste and very strong alcohol when I had the first sip. The label on the bottle indicated the alcohol percentage was 19 to 20%. I feel many genshu sakes (undiluted sakes) from this brewery have relatively high alcohol content (when I made umeshu from a genshu of Sawanoi, it had 21 to 22% of alcohol).

On that evening, I drank about 1-go (180 ml) of this sake at a room temperature. Maybe, it will be interesting if I try on the rocks, with water, warmed, or blended with some other sake. I want to try it in many ways.

Today, I provide you the movie showing how I enjoyed the hike I mentioned above. I included the scene where I started walking, departing from Ome Station, to the scene I drank soothing beer at Sawanoioen. This is a relatively long footage of over seven minutes. So, if you have time, enjoy seeing it.

Drinking sake cool, diluted, and then warmed

Umenoyado Tokubetsu Junmai Muroka Nama Genshu Kimoto (梅乃宿 特別純米無濾過生原酒 生酛) is non-pasteurized sake, which gives a strong impression. It may have too bold but is certainly my favorite sake.

Nonetheless, I tried to moderate its boldness somewhat by adding some water to it. The sake, after water being added, became quite acid and crisp. This was for me very interesting change in taste.

And then, I warmed this sake. First, it tasted sweetish and it seemed that the originally well-balanced sweetness and acidity became more separate from each other and more discernible. However, it turned, when I drank the warmed sake with supper, that this warmed sake could be paired well with various foods.

The taste of one sake varies depending on how you like it. This is interesting.

Enjoying blend sake

The Sunday of the last week was a cold day, and my fancy for warmed sake increased. So, I went to Izakaya Sawanosuke at Sawanoien with my friend. They operate this izakaya only on weekends, but this is a nice place to drink warmed sake in the daytime. Actually, since Sawanoien is open only in the daytime, Sawanosuke closes the operations late-afternoon.

Quite unfortunately, Sawanosuke was not operating on that day. Last year, I had also the same experience. It was as if I had known non-business days of the izakaya, and has selected such days. I am so unlucky about this izakaya.

It was a cold day and it was hard to drink cold sake in such a condition. We wanted to leave Sawanoien and go to some warm place to drink sake.

Anyway, we had lunch first at the Mameraku, tofu restaurant, on the premises, and had some sips of sake at Kikisake Dokoro (sake tasting corner) as we usually do when we visit the place. Then, we left Sawanoien for Tachikawa.

We got to Tachikawa around 4 o'clock in the afternoon. It was still too early for normal izakayas to open. However, there are usually some exceptional izakayas. Kaisen Uoriki is one of such exceptional restaurants. So, we entered the Kaisen Uoriki on the south exist-side of Tachikawa Station.

By the way, is this izakaya a chain store? I see Kiasen Uoriki in several places. I know there are at least two Uoriki izakayas in Tachikawa, and there is one in Akishima, so they are probably chain izakayas. In the past, chain izakayas did not carry very good sake, but lately they have good menus. Actually, this Uoriki also had a relatively nice selection of sake.

Otohshi appetizers neatly arranged on a plate were good enough for pairing with sake. As to foods at this izakaya, sashimi was nice, and they had also nice sushi, which you may want to eat as a wind-up food.

We ordered Gazanryu Hazuki Muroka Namazake, which was sake rich in taste and went well with kinmedai kabuto ni (boiled head of an alfonsino fish flavored with soy sauce, sugar, sake, and other seasonings) Then, we ordered Yukimuro, sake from Gunma Prefecture made from Gohyakumangoku sake rice. This was quite dry and flinty sake.

Then, I have an inspiration. I poured some of the half left Gazanryu in my cup and then added Yukimuro to it, blending the two sakes fifty-fifty. This blend sake tasted basically like Gazanryu, but it had increased mildness and sweetness, became easier to drink, and went good with foods. I found that blending two sakes in one's own way was also a pleasure of sake drinking.

And, here is today's video. I compared two warmed Tokyo sakes, Sawanoi and Kasen.

Sake tasting

Last Saturday, I attended a sake drinking party held in an izakaya in Tachikawa City.

This izakaya is holding sake drinking parties at a rate of twice a year and gather their frequent customers to a party. This time, attendees paid reasonable admittance of 5,000 yen and could drink almost all the types of sake at this izakaya. So, this was a nice reasonable party for sake drinkers.

We had a sake tasting game during the party. The following is what the tencho, or izakaya manager said to us:

"There are four bottles numbered 1, 2, 3, and 4. Two bottles contain different types of that famed Juyondai, and others contain some other sake. First, taste all the sake types in these bottles, and then you must choose the two bottles that you think are Juyondai. I will give you a glass of very special and expensive sake if you choose the right bottles."

I thought, "I see, this will be difficult for me. To distinguish sake is not very difficult for me, but to name sake is very difficult." So, I decided to use the tactics to select two most balanced and elegant bottles.

Bottle 1: Richness, bouquet, acidity, and other elements were well balanced leaving a favorable impression. I personally loved it, but it had rather strong impact. I think expensive sake is modest in many cases.

Bottle 2: This was rich and elegant. I thought this was a right bottle.

Bottle 3: I felt a strong alcoholic impression and I didn't like it very much. So, I excluded this bottle from the candidates.

Bottle 4: Clear and light sake, and I liked it. Someone told me that this tasted like an alcohol added sake version of bottle 2, and I agreed with her.

So, I chose bottles 2 and 4. However, actually the correct bottles were bottle 2 and bottle 3. The no. 3 bottle I first excluded from the candidates was Juyondai Honmaru. Incidentally, the one I liked best was Sasaichi from Yamanashi Prefecture. As to bottle 4, I forget the name.

Speaking of sake tasting, the izakaya carried two types of NINE from Tsuji Honten. One was namazake, non-pasteurized sake, and the other was hiire, pasteurized sake. So, I compared them.

I first drank this sake in autumn of 2010. It was a hiyaoroshi sake. Then, I found this was my taste.

(In the article "NINE and sake with a self-heating system" I wrote at that time, there is the following description: From this name of bodaimoto, I thought that the flavor of the sake was old-fashioned and crude. No, this is very sophisticated sake. It is very rich in taste and, at the same time, delicate. I like the moderate sweetness of this sake. This is hiyaoroshi sake, which means the sake has been pasteurized once. However, I hardly feel anything caused by pasteurization, and the flavor of this sake gives me a crispy and brisk impression of namazake.)

In the party this time, when I drank the hiire, I felt a bit of bouquet caused by aging and richness in taste, and I thought this was tasty. And, just in front of me was some fatty nice sashimi, making good paring with this sake. Then, I tried the namazake, this was clear and a bit young, leaving a remote impression. It seemed to be shiboritate and too fresh, but maybe it would become mature after some period of aging. Interesting!

Well, I selected the movie below for today. The sake I am drinking in the movie is Sawanoi Risshun Asashibori, which is another shiboritate, but enough enjoyable.

Soul sake

For the Japanese, sake is not a mere alcoholic beverage but it is very special. Since early times, sake was given important roles and appeared in various scenes such as in ceremonial occasions for the coming of age, marriage, funeral and ancestral worship, religious rituals, prayer for victory by samurais. 

In these days, people have a wide range of choice of alcoholic drinks and beer and other beverages have gained in popularity. However, when it counts, sake is a must. I have never heard that they exchange cups of wine in Shinto wedding ceremony

Low priced sake is enough for evening drink. Sake drunk feelingly in the evening gently praises the effort and industry of the drinkers on the day, give their mind and body energy, and restores the drinkers' will to work hard again tomorrow. Such sake is nice sake.

The video I present below was a commercial message of sake that was once being produced in Iwate Prefecture, and I think this short movie is well depicting how people enjoy and love sake.

The following is the lyrics of the song, with their reading and my translation:

岩手故郷よ  (Iwate furusato yo:  Iwate my homeland)

やさしい郷だよ  (Yasashii kuni dayo:  is a gentle land.)

雨も風もな  (Ame mo kaze mo na:  Rain and wind,)

人情もまろいよ  (Ninjo mo maroi yo:  and also peoples heart are mellow and round.)

遠く離れてもよ  (Toku hanaretemo yo:  Even apart far away,)

心は帰るよ  (Kokoro wa kaeruyo:  my heart returns home)

牛追い唄がな聞こえる道をよ  (Ushioiuta ga na kikoeru michi wo yo:  along the way hearing someone's song driving cows.)

心の酒です岩手川  (Kokoro no sake desu Iwategawa  The soul sake Iwategawa)

Unfortunately, the brewery was closed down in 2006, and we can't drink this sake any longer. 

Looking back on 2011 (September to December)

Yes, I know, it's already 2012, but I must finish this post before writing something suitable for the New Year.

September

There is a small settlement in the Mine district in the Okutama area of Tokyo. This settlement is a so-called marginal settlement, suffering depopulation and aging of its residents. On one Sunday of September, three-lion dances were performed at Hanaire Shrine in this district.

My car drove along the north shore of Okutama Lake, tuned left halfway, went northward along the Minedani River, and then went up the narrow road on the slope on the left. This was a quite steep slope. Around 8:30, I got the Mine Seikatsu Kaizen Center (Life Improvement Center).

This place is at 760 meters above the sea level. There is a small field full of white buckwheat flowers. I saw red dragonflies flying here and there (this species is seen only on highlands in this season).

According to an old villager, there were only 15 households in this district, while one band of three-lion dance consists of 16 people. There were only few people, so it is very difficult to maintain this performing art. Actually, some performers are now living in other towns or cities and they return to this district on the performing day for the performance. However, there are not enough people for the performance and they do not have members who play bamboo fifes. So, they need to play back taped fife music when they perform dances.

These lion dances could successfully and uneventfully be performed this year, but how about next year? I am afraid that they are on the verge of discontinuation.

 

October

October 1 is the sake day, and I attended an event called "Tokyo Sake Train" on this day.

In this event, a monorail train on the Tama Monorail line was chartered and sake drinking party was held on this train. The train left at the northernmost terminal Kamikitadai, running southward to reach the Tama Center, the southernmost terminal, and then went backward to reach Tachikawa-Kita Station.

The Tama Monorail line is not a long line and the train ran just short distances in this event. If you take a train and ride on it along the same course as above, it takes only 55 minutes. So, first I was afraid that we could not drink very much because of short time. No problem! The train stopped at Tama Center Station for about an hour. During this stop, we could continue talking with people and enjoying drinking. In addition, President Ishikawa from Ishikawa Brewery in Fussa City played harmonica for us (he is a good harmonica player).

So, we could get friendly with fellow passengers and have a nice raucous drinking party.

Our sake train was approaching to the final destination of Tachikawa-Kita Station, and it was already after dark. Suddenly, the lights in the train went out, and the city lights in turn gained their luminosity. Viewing a nightscape from a running train in this way was a quite rare and fantastic experience.

November

I attended a soba (buckwheat noodles) making class held in Ome City.

The place of the class was facilities where visitors can enjoy a BBQ. So after the class, we had a BBQ party, of course with sake.

I brought a special sake gadget called kandouko (sake warmer using charcoal) and used it to prepare warmed sake. I used the kandouko also for grilling mushrooms and other foods. It was also interesting to warm a food can on the grill of the kandouko.

We tried a new way of eating grilled mushrooms; grill some mushrooms; warm a shellfish can; dip grilled mushrooms in the shellfish soup; and eat them. However the soup was too sweetish!

December

I went to the amusement park Yomiuriland, where an electric spectacular event called Jewellmination was being held. However, my purpose was not seeing these LED ornament but drinking. In this amusement park, they had set up temporary food stands, which were collectively named the Jewel Hot Dining, and one of the food stands was carrying sake, and other alcohol beverages. Actually, one of my drinking friends is a key person of the park and had been engaged in this food service since its planning stage. He seemed to have been exercising his power to realize his ideal izakaya in the park. There were five food stands and one carried a menu quite looking like that of an izakaya specialized in jizake (local sake). Besides sake, there were, draft beers, whiskies, wines, shochu, and others. Moreover, snacks and foods selected by him made good pairing with the drinks.